Blue Green (Cyanobacteria) Algae - Please HELP!

Hallo everyone, I need help.

My Betta's tank is being overrun by Blue Green (Cyanobacteria) Algae.

I've read that treatments include:

* Increase nitrates - Dose nitrates until the concentration reaches ~5ppm. - What can I use to dose Nitrate and how much should be dosed in a 15 liter tank? I'm still clueless about ppm


* Excel treatment - Use a syringe to spot treat problem areas. Then manually remove dead patches. - How much excel can I add to the tank before it will affect my fish?



* Erythromycin - use antibiotics at half dosage to kill the bacteria. - In which product can I find this?

Any and all other ideas and suggestion on how to treat this will be appreciated.

Thank you!!

 

If its such a small tank, personally I would just start over, not worth all the effort really.
Excuse for a rescape hehe:blink1:

But if youre keen dose Saltpeter from Dischem at 0,45grams

 

Hi Dinky,

I had this problem a while back. Basically (from my understanding) is that the ratio of nitrates to phosphates has become unbalanced and there is too much phosphate and not enough nitrate. I solved it by feeding less, changing water more often (3 times a week - 25 L on tues, thurs and then 75 L on saturday - my tank was 200 odd liters) and adding salt peter( which is adding nitrates). I was advised to stay away from Erthromycin. Not sure about excel. As for adding nitrates - ppm is mg/L. So you want 5 mg/L which would be 75 mg for your tank. First dissolve the salt peter in tank water and then add the water to the tank. Do you have any plants in the tank?

 

@TheGrissom

There is some HC and Repens in the tank, nothing too serious. How do I measure 75mg? My kitchen scale unfortunately only does 2g measurements

Thanx for the info with regards to the cause, it helps a lot. I've only been adding Excel and Comprehensive to the tank. Should I rather not give any Comprehensive or how does the ratio get out of whack?

@hein24 - I'm taking your advice into serious consideration. Just one question, I know my Betta will survive a 100% water change, but I've noticed now that it's in the badis tank as well. If I clean out the tank and add some of the water back, will that not start the problem all over again?

 

Well there could still be some left in the water column but you will minimize it if you only use some water, remember when you buy fish from the local fish store you drip them for 2 - 3 hours to get them used to your tank water, this shouldn't be any different. Just make sure that you keep your filter going to prevent the tank from going into recycle mode.

 

A rescape would be good; however that's not fixing the problem.
Normally Cyanobacteria Algae is caused by organic waste and Anaerobic water which means no air.

My suggestion would be to use Seachem PhosGuard and do almost daily WC and remove as much of it as possible by hand.
Stop feeding the fish for a few days and clean out the filter; use use Seachem Stability to keep things stable when cleaning out the filter.

You can use Erythromycin in the tank and shut the lights down for a few days (move fish to quarantine tank) and you can use an airstone.

Good Luck Dinky.

 

As the name suggest, this is a bacteria not an algae. I've never had it but I've been told it requires anti-bacterial meds...

 

Just weigh 2 g of salt petre into a 2L bottle and dissolve it completely. Now each ml contains 1 mg of KNO3. So if you add 100 ml of this solution to your tank you will be adding 100 mg KNO3 or 61 mg NO3. This equates to 4 ppm NO3. It doesnt need to be exact, you just need excess nitrates. And as a bonus your plants will thrive with the excess K. What you will probably find is that your nitrates are very low (when I had this problem my NO3 was 0 ppm, but I do have a heavily planted tank). From my understanding plants will use nitrates and phosphates up. If the nitrate supply stops then the plants stop the phosphate uptake and as the phosphate increases the cyanobacteria starts to thrive. So by adding excess NO3 you enable the plants to bring the phosphate level down thereby starving the cyanobacteria. It took about 2-3 weeks for it to clear up in my tank.

 

This was written by Tyrone Grenade some time ago and this is very interesting, especially the N ratio, I really don't think he will mind me posting it here as its to help a fellow member:

Also found this article:

http://www.aquaticplantcentral.com/forumapc/algae/72553-bga-keeps-coming-back-help.html

 

@TheGrissom

Thank you very much! I really, really appreciate! :bigsmile: I brushed the gunk of the substrate with a toothbrush, removed the severely effected plants aside from the HC, did a vacuum and added the Salt Peter. Can I add the mixture daily or at what intervals should I use it?

Tx @sub-lime - I will up the aeration in his tank - he'll probably be annoyed with me for a day or two but he'll have to get over it. I change water every second day, but I don't vacuum the gravel each time I change water. I'll include a partial vacuum with each change and see if that helps with the waste levels

@Hawk - it's slimy and smelly! Reminds me of swimming in the old farm dam as a child! Since it's a bacteria, would adding something like Para Guard help?

 

This will probably be the easiest way to get rid of it:

Get Purmycin Tablets from your chemist, ask for 12. Dose it on day one with 50% WC, then on day 3 add a second dose and on day 6 dose again with 50% WC, day 9 add another dose and day 12 another dose and 50% WC.

That should do the trick.
Look there is no easy way of getting rid of this, but the method mentioned here on top will be the simplest and the easiest.

 

Pretty much all these methods work but it wont come without affecting something else like water balance and plant quality.
It just takes time and effort to maintain the fixes and follow up.

Algae is a steep learning curve for any enthusiast but you always come out smarter at the end.

 

@hein24 - thank you very much, very informative read. I did indeed notice BBA as well when I cleared out the plants and was just about to read up on that when your post came through! :bigsmile:

It's good to know the one treatment will solve both the problems. I'll see what effect the Salt Peter has on the tank and attempt the H202 remedy if needed. Luckily I work from home so I will also be able to keep a close eye on the effect on the fish.

 

@sub-lime - I also strongly believe in eliminating the cause of something rather than just treating the effects. As for the learning curve - I'm fast becoming an expert on what NOT to do! :cheesy: but I'm learning something new each day and enjoying the journey!

 

No Prob - We have high sulfates in JHB and probably in PTA as well, I would also recommend adding activated carbon to your filter, although you did mention its only a 15 L tank, you could still treat your water before doing WC, pm me if you are interested.

I disagree the last method I mentioned pretty much doesn't do anything to plants nor fish.

 

Do you have a nitrate test kit? What is the current level of nitrates in the tank? You will need to measure it and make sure that there are always nitrates in supply but dont let it get high or it will kill the fish. If I recall I think its less than 20 ppm NO3. What you could do if you dont have any test kits is do a 50 % WC before you add your nitrate solution. This means the maximum the nitrates will get to if your plants arent using all of them is 8 ppm (assuming no other source of nitrates is being added) which is below the maximum limit recommended for nitrates. And this method wont effect your water in any way. In fact the plants will do better with a slight excess of NO3 and K. This is the most natural method. That was the reason I chose to give it a try first. And as I stated earlier it worked for me so I didnt have to do anything else. In fact I still add KNO3 to my tank daily and it has been months since my cyanobacteria outbreak.

 

Looks like you have some suggestions. Let us know what you try and how it works (you are now the official lab rat :blink1. I will try to find the guy who used meds and find out which...

 

Hallo everyone!

Thanks again for all the help and advice.

I tried the Salt Peter on its own for a couple of days but when I started to get bubbles and slime again my impatient nature kicked in.

I ended up buying Ista's Algae remover - definite improvement. Will continue to add Salt Peter as well.

Any suggestions for good balanced fertilizers?

This is what the tanks look like currently - much improved

 

The Ista AR works well but keep to the instructions. Its helped a lot against my BBA.

Ferts as in liquid or substrate?

 

@sub-lime

Either, I'm open to any and all suggestions. What I'm doing is so NOT working! :bigsmile:

Currently I'm using Excel daily (no pressurized CO2 yet - lack of budget and serious lack of ability to diy over and above changing a plug or replacing a globe) and Comprehensive once a week.

I've noticed little black holes forming on the plants lately so I guess comprehensive isn't as comprehensive as it should be. I can't complain about growth, but I'd rather have perfected slow growth than ugly fast growth (for lack of expressing myself better)

Current situation:

Main tank - pinholes and green spot algae. Suburb growth - Lack of CO2 and phosphates?
15 liter tanks - Brown algae, Beard Algae, Blue Green algae (I'm culturing the A - Z of algae here) - Lack of CO2 and Nitrates and Phosphates......
30 liter - near perfection (go figure!)

Main aim - healthy, beautiful plants and fish (without having to get a degree in chemistry to administer ferts! :laugh